Overview

On a warm Saturday night in July 1973 in Bethesda Maryland, a gunman stepped out from behind a tree and fired five point-blank shots into Joe Alon, an unassuming Israeli Air Force pilot and family man. Alon's sixteen-year-old neighbor, Fred Burton, was deeply shocked by this crime that rocked his sleepy suburban neighborhood. As it turned out, Alon wasn't just a pilot--he was a high-ranking military official and with intelligence ties. The assassin was never found and the case was closed. In 2007, Fred Burton--who had since become a State Department counterterrorism special agent--reopened the case. Here, Burton spins a gripping tale of the secret agents, double dealings, terrorists and heroes he encounters he chases leads around the globe in an effort to solve this decades-old murder. From swirling dogfights over Egypt and Hanoi to gun battles on the streets of Beirut, this action-packed thriller looks in the dark heart of the Cold War to show power is uses, misused, and sold to the most convenient bidder.

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9780230620551

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Reviews

Review for Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Expert: 'With spy thriller suspense and the clarity of a police report, former special agent Burton's State Department saga reads like a brewing-storm prequel to the current 'war on terror.' - Publishers Weekly 'This book reads like a le Carre spy novel...Shorn of ideological rights and wrongs, it's a fascinating look at what counterterrorism really means on a day-to-day level.' - Booklist

'This book represents an extraordinary history of Fred Burton's determined pursuit of justice in the unsolved case of a murder in his hometown when he was a teenager. It demonstrates the uses and abuses of international power and how international loyalties are bought and sold. The story is told in the manner of political thriller with all the twists and turns one would expect. It is constructed and written to draw the reader in and who will inevitably find it difficult to put down.' - Defence Viewpoints, UK Defence Forum Review for Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Expert: 'With spy thriller suspense and the clarity of a police report, former special agent Burton's State Department saga reads like a brewing-storm prequel to the current 'war on terror.' - Publishers Weekly 'This book reads like a le Carre spy novel...Shorn of ideological rights and wrongs, it's a fascinating look at what counterterrorism really means on a day-to-day level.' - Booklist

Author Information

Fred Burton is one of the world's foremost experts on security, terrorists, and terrorist organizations. He was deputy chief of the Counterterrorism Division of the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service and is currently a vice president at Stratfor, a global intelligence agency known as the 'shadow CIA.' He is the author of Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent and has appeared on the Daily Show, Glenn Beck and Anderson Cooper 360, and on Fox, ABC, and CBS radio. He has also written for the Los Angeles Times, among others. He lives in Austin, TX. John Bruning is a military historian and the co-author of House to House. He lives in Independence, Oregon.

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